Friday, November 28, 2014

White Uber Geeks' Heads Explode: The First Character Shown in the Official 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' Teaser Trailer is A Black Man

Harlem roared with approval when Lando Calrissian made his first appearance in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back.

Star Wars takes place a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.

Star Wars: A New Hope left the public with the impression that while aliens and robots may be mundane inhabitants in George Lucas's fantastical world, people of color were somehow not present.

Empire was a corrective. The Force is real; black and brown folks exist and are real in the Star Wars Universe too.

Several hours ago, the trailer for Star Wars Episode 7: The Force Awakens debuted in select theaters and for a global audience online. The first character to be introduced was John Boyega, a black Brit who plays a stormtrooper (and rumored Force user as well as one of the two main characters) in the new Trilogy.

A black man? As one of the leads in a Star Wars movie? Wow. How things have changed in Hollywood over three decades.

Of course, the uber white fanboys will complain that "Social Justice Warriors" and "political correctness" have "stolen" their childhoods.

Geek and nerd culture--even as it applies to a global popular culture phenomenon such as the Star Wars Universe--is assumed by too many white folks to be their owned playground, an exclusive space for their imagination where the "race problem" is solved by eliminating non-whites from the visual and narrative frame.

Racial erasure remains one of the most enduring and strident problems in fantasy and speculative literature: this is true from the "golden age" of the 1950s to the post racial present.

I enjoyed the new Star Wars trailer--of course, 88 second snippets of a two hour film can be very deceptive (example: The Phantom Menace's trailer was intriguing; the movie was an epic failure).

55 comments:

"I enjoyed the new Star Wars trailer--of course, 88 second snippets of a two hour film can be very deceptive (example: The Phantom Menace's trailer was intriguing; the movie was an epic failure)."

My sentiments exactly. Darth Maul was cool, both in trailer and in movie, but you're going to leave the theatre disappointed if you try to base any assumptions on the movie based on SW:PM's trailer.

I will say I was very intrigued by the appearance of the black man in the white Stormtrooper garb (John Boyega). There's more than a base contrast of colors going on here (white uniform, black occupant inside). Much like in "The Matrix", the mise en scène speaks volumes about power structures: in The Original Trilogy the only troopers we see unmasked were white (Luke and Han) and their commanders decidedly British sounding (cue Peter Cushing); in The Matrix agents were all white and so also was The Architect. The Rebels were not only diverse (cue Billy D.) but literally interracial (cue Chewie and that Sulistan co-piloting with Lando); in the Matrix most all those in Zion were people of color.

So my convoluted point here is exactly what message is being expressed here by John Boyega's Force-awakened character being so prominently presented in this teaser besides the obvious inclusivity statement being made. Eighty-eight seconds is not a lot of time for exposition - especially for a teaser to such a important movie series reboot - so what's being presented here, and how, is very much worth the usual cinephile punditry. My question here Is the usually faceless Stormtrooper unmasked to be a black man inside (cue "Chasing Amy" White-hating Coon scene) who longs to be free of his association with the (I'm guessing defunct) Empire some visual cue about some of less discussed aspects of the dred Imperial regime? Do we finally get to talk about the enslavement and subjugation of the Wookie peoples?

At its heart, racism (and the corollary delusion of actual "races") is a stunted parochial phenomenon. Star Wars frames the race-dillema brilliantly. Claiming universality for stories featuring ONLY "white"-looking people is like setting Star Wars in a world populated (for some reason ) only by people who look like Australian Aborigines - then throwing a fit because Luke had blonde hair. But people invested in "whiteness" are so demented by the "Race Goggles" that they can't see the insanity of their obsession.

Interestingly enough, the actual demographics of people who play video-games looks a lot more like the demographics of the country: it is heavily female and also weighted towards older people as well, not just young so-called-white men.The "gamer" subculture is a white-male supremacist culture. Just look at "Gamergate", and how quickly they degenerated into threats of raping women at any perceived slight to their orthodoxies. It isn't a coincidence that this subculture models the same kind of insular "threat-around-every-corner" insecurity that expresses itself in the velociraptor-tribe hostility of the Tea Party -- or your local police department.

Exhibit A: the comment below about the trailer, regarding the so-called-black stormtrooper (who in full human complexity is actually a British citizen of Nigerian descent):

I guarantee you that a British citizen of Nigerian upper-class descent will speak Queen's English better than the commenter and his entire American family. But that's not quite the point. The point is how racism works here in America. Persecute and disadvantage a subset of people for hundreds of years so that - among other things - they have less access to education than everyone else. Then, when SOME members of that population express themselves in the vernacular of the less educated, use THAT vernacular as an identifying ESSENCE of the Untermenschen group - to further justify your persecution (and conveniently ignore the identical vernacular of less educated "whites"). Rinse and Repeat - at least until enough people call out this madness. Welcome to the Matrix.

Agreed, Darth Maul was one of the best characters yet - and so appallingly misused and wasted by George "Arrested Development" Lucas.

I see what you're saying about the "white" Stormtrooper garb... but I think it verges close to my pet peeve about "race" and colour essentialism. If poor Mr. Boyega - who is just a damn fine actor playing a part - has to carry all sorts of freighted symbolism of the "White" stormtrooper garb, then why didn't any of the "white" actors who have appeared unburdened by such "race-magnet" symbolism in black Sith garb? You see the point? The unfortunate "black-ness" symbolism sticks to Mr. Boyega even more inappropriately when I take off my "Race Goggles" and I notice that his skin is actually brown - not black like Vader's helmet.

The trailer looks good. I hope it's fulfilling, though I should admit I am not much of a sci-fi nerd.

It's a nice reprieve after the emotional turmoil of the week. There has been a barrage of racist posts from my fam about Ferguson. Then of course there is Thanksgiving with my racist family. Ferguson came up for a moment, but if the conversation continued I was going to take my family and leave even though my son adores my parents.

Luckily it didn't last very long... I may feel uncomfortable around my racist family, but their beliefs are the death knell of people of color around the world. I don't think there is anything I can say to them that would change their minds, but I wish there was.

I liked the teaser trailer--of course they aren't going to show the whole bloody movie, but what was shown impressed me.

Good call on the McQuarrie-style X-Wings (man, I miss him...). Of course we'll have to wait a year to see the finished film, but this teaser was some good news at the end of a pretty crappy week.

As for the idiot geeks--okay, racist a$$holes--what else, sadly, is new? Over at IMDB they've already infested the boards, and as for AICN, all I can say is that it isn't the first time--after all, when Idris Elba was cast as Heimdall in THOR and Jamie Foxx was cast as Electro, the talkbacks resembled minutes from a Klan meeting.

Sorry but poor Mr. Boyega, (who probably is a damn fine actor; I haven't heard of him nor saw any of his work to this point) is going to have to carry about all sorts of frightened symbolism about his blackness in an icon science fiction movie franchise whether I or you notice it and say something about it or not. That was the original point of CDV's piece here, was it not. That's the fault of the culture in which we've been born; I'm just rolling with it.

Why didn't any of the white actors get burdened with their "white-ness" playing Sith characters? Probably for the same reason why most movies feature mostly white casts: we see enough them in enough diverse roles that we don't really get the stark visual contrast invoking that kind of momentary emotional invocation as we do with a black actor emerging from what had been, to this point (excluding Temuera Morrison's Māori BROWN clone warriors), a uniformly white Stormtrooper portrayal. You got Lando, you got Mace, you got Bail Organa and that's about it; imagining there's a little more allusion work being done here with the brief show this character in a movie teaser trailer really isn't that much of a "Race Googles"-induced stretch to make here. And considering this is also a reboot featuring a host of the original SW cast, which would also be a very logical hooking point to feature in the first teaser for fans young and old alike, it makes you again speculate what a brief flash this brief image of this new character (in the film series) here is intended to invoke with the viewer, old fan or new. Just speculating, not trying to start a intergalactic race war. And I notice that brown skin or no, the momentary contrast reads black; that's a cultural tick, not bad eyesight. And if you feel I am pulling random race tropes out my azz that aren't really baked into George Lucas movie, I would ask you to watch SW: Phantom Menace once again, paying close attention to Wato and Jar Jar Binks.

I hated the Phantom Menace particularly because of the Amos 'n' Andy schtick of Jar-Jar Binks, and the insulting Fu-Manchu racist mannerisms of the "Trade Federation".

My point is that there is a difference between recognising that a culture has created an unjust system of discrimination AND perpetuating that system. You will notice that I don't shy away from recognising this system. I also always use the words "black" and "white" in quotes because - at the same time I want to interrogate that system, not swallow and pass on its poison blindly.Nothing personal, and I understand where you're coming from - but in my opinion to obsess over the "contrast" of the white stormtrooper costume and Boyega's black skin is uncomfortably close to the flip side of the coin of the fanboys who are outraged by exactly that same "contrast".

No. The first few waves of stormtroopers were clones. The later iterations are not clones. They are angry about their white fanboy dreams being disrupted. Plus, you have different types of stormtroopers, Imperial Army, etc. etc.

Don't give the whiteness and white privilege of fanboy geek culture such a wide birth.

Egypt went through different phases, was a multicultural society, and did have a period when Nubia was dominant. I am very weary of importing modern conceptions of race into antiquity. I never understood the Afrocentric black American fascination w. Egypt. I get the need to make up fictive pasts--we all do it--but that project has always been meh to me.

Plus we can thank such fantasies for crap like X-Clan and kente cloth made in Korea.

You are spot on in regards to Ridley Scott. I love his work but am not seeing Exodus. I laugh as the white racial frame suggests that "race doesn't matter" in "Biblical" epics but then everyone is white. White privilege as the universal I and faux colorblindness that advances white supremacy as an ideology.

One of the guests on The Chauncey DeVega show is a professional skeptic. We had a great conversation. One of the topics was Afrocentric fantasies and the work of Ivan Van Sertima. Curious to read you take on the conversation when it is posted.

Semiotics as it applies to film ain't easy. Interpretive work is hard--easy to do poorly.

You have to balance the visual grammar of the film, the imaginary in which it is located, the paradigmatic context, and the ideological frame we are using as viewers/receivers and the type of frame we want to use for analysis.

So yes, it "matters" that he is black wearing white armor, but what is the broader claim and what theoretical framework are you using to sort through the connotative/denotative meanings etc...

John Boyega starred in the movie **Attack the Block,** a British film about poor kids (mostly of color) who save their projects (called **estates** in the UK) from extraterrestrial monsters. It is a very good movie, if you have not seen it.

Yep, that white racial frame sure is a strange Heisenberg-ian thing. It doesn't exist UNTIL you try to look away from it. Try filming Exodus solely with "black" and semitic faces - depicted in modern-day-inappropriate power relationships - then I guarantee you, post-racial comity would collapse into the white gaze like a giant black hole and you would feel the quasar-like heat of a trillion suns. The whole "back-to-Africa" thing is so tragically wrong, and a misstep right into the frame of White Supremacy. If ever there were a population who have earned title and deed to stay RIGHT HERE and own a place of dignity in this land (beyond those whom it was originally stolen from) it is the "black" Americans who are descendants of those who created almost all of its seed-wealth.Africa is also 55 independent nations - some of which INTERNALLY have more different languages and cultures than any 10 European countries. "Africa" is not a Kente cloth or Swahili.

The black man in the stormtrooper uniform is most likely Zare Leonis from Star Wars Rebels and from the book Servants of the Empire: Edge of the Galaxy. (Another book on the way.) [True the time frame is off but that never stopped SW before.)

Zare has a missing sister, Dhara Leonis. Look for her to be a villainess in The Force Awakens or at least an attempted villainess. Now Lupita Nyong'o is reported to have a minor role in SW:TFA but it is not reported to be a villain. Things that make you go hmmm.....

Disney has made available the first 5 episodes of SW Rebels for free: http://www.slashfilm.com/free-star-wars-rebels-streaming/

Aside: In 2014, we leaned that Palpatine has a first name: Sheev. From the Hindu god Shiva perhaps?

To be honest? Seeing that John Boyega is in this movie was the first and maybe only encouraging sign so far. I just want to shout at people "go watch 'Attack the Block' and tell me you don't want the dude who plays Moses to star in everything!!!" Seriously, that guy is an effing star just waiting for the right exposure.

First things First; It's not a choice between "Afrocentric" or white frame approved history. While I certainly agree that the net is full of poorly produced and poorly researched "Black Cultural reverse racism" productions, upon a deeper inquiry and study, some genuine scholars therein cannot be dismissed just because of their poor production values. Even the Oriental Institute, right down the street from us, has started to embrace the Black African Origins of the Egyptian Dynastic Culture and the research contributions of Black African scholars.Truth on a chaukboard is still truth when compared to an IMAX film whose content is based on historical lies. I cannot equate political, cultural or religious solidarity with the place of manufacturing origin of symbolic products. I'm pretty sure that the buyers of AK-47's would not shun their use, in service to their cause, based on the counry of origin of AK-47's.We, as POC cannot fail our future generations by letting our grasp of our own "AFRICAN" history be spoon fed by those who would undermine our TRUE contributions to CIVILIZATION AND CULTURE for the sake of projecting white power. This is truly ironic and underscored considering Christmas is just around the corner...While we agree that Egypt has a multi-racial/cultural history, we disagree about the meta-significance of the Black African origins and racial make-up of the original pharonic line and their religious beliefs that are still practiced today under the guise of the Abrahamic Triad. Most importantly, and meta-germaine to this conversation, is the historical FACT that the stories within those very Egyption derived religious sub-texts (Abrahamic religions) are the basis of MOST of the science fiction we all enjoy today....including Star Wars. Sadly, it is also the religious origin of the Big Bang theory and the near heretical opposition of those scientists who offer well researched and documented (peer reviewed) arguments in opposition to the Big Bang.The origins of the authorship of our most revered texts, is POWER.I appreciate your reply and look forword to your growing net presence as well as future conversations.

I always appreciate our conversations. One of the reasons I am so happy that WARN is still here after 7 plus years, growing, and interesting things are afoot--or so I was told by Bothan spies--are the nice exchanges I have here with cool folks who are kind enough to share and comment.

I do wonder about this observation:

"The origins of the authorship of our most revered texts, is POWER."

How? In what way? And how do you define Power?

Geneticists have determined that early Europeans were likely "black" with blue eyes. Okay. So what? How does that translate into meaningful or substantive political, social, or economic power? You/I likely knew that in middle school. And?

Most of the in-group, i.e. the powerful don't know a damn thing of substance about their "revered texts". As you know, they are still "powerful"--the real elites mock them, but that is a different convo.

Email a brother, since you are local we should get a beer or non alcoholic drink if that is your preference. I always like chatting w. folks in person who are friends of and commentators on WARN.

I was never that into Star Wars, so I probably lack the context for appreciating a black actor in that role.

That said though, I am old enough to recall a time when it was rare for blacks to appear in serious roles in any media, unless they were as foolish foils to more heroic white leads. When blacks appeared in horror movies, you knew that person would not only be the first to die, but whose death would be humiliating, pathetic and cowardly. That was the standard frame.

Eventually, blacks appeared as tokens, in order for whatever the presentation was, be it commercials, TV shows, or movies, so it can be said, "we had a black in it." Never mind that the role would always be so limited and aligned to the racist stereotype about blacks.

What we're seeing with the gamer culture response to this black actor in this trailer is a trend but also the same old, same old. We see it in the Vampire cult kids response to the actor Robert Pattison dating black singer FKA Twigs. We saw it in the response to everything from blacks in lead roles on other presentations, to "mixed race" families in Cheerios commercials. Its a revolt against the normalcy of whiteness, that such roles are normally reserved for whites. That only white people can be in any role that is "traditional" or "white" from their perspective. To be white is to be normal.

Yep, tokenism still exists. And even the rare show that overcomes tokenism today has the problem of "Agency" (who leads/calls the shots). Whether it is "Walking Dead" or virtually any other entertainment, watch closely. In any action Two-shot or Group-shot, who is walking slightly ahead? Who is calling the shots? (as in "Let's all move over to that building!!") Who is walking slightly behind the "white" female AND carrying the baby even though he would otherwise (if he were "white") be the action lead in such scenes? (I'm looking at you Tyrese). For those who use terms like "People of Colour" to describe America's racism issues, I wonder how they consider the fact that these kinds of problems are almost unique to "black" actors. Temura Morrison (New Zealand Maori actor) who played Jango Fett didn't cause such an allergic reaction. I could equally see an Argentinian or Mexican actor/actress in Star Wars with no outcry. Keanu Reeves - or indeed the "asian" actor who plays Glenn in the Walking Dead - would probably be accepted in the Star Wars world.White Supremacy discriminates against any "non-whites" - but there is a unique "Black Problem" that "whites" have - like the old "Jewish Problem" of the Nazis.

But his skin color prompted some controversy on social media sites and online forums.

Some Star Wars fans were upset that Boyega was apparently cast to play a Stormtrooper. These fans claimed that Stormtroopers were clones of Jango Fett, and since Fett wasn’t black, no Stormtroopers should be. There is only a black Stormtrooper because of “political correctness,” they lamented.

Boyega addressed his supporters and critics in an Instagram post on Saturday.

He wrote: “Thank you for all the love and support! The fan mail and fan art has added to my joy! Isn’t it crazy that Star Wars is actually happening? I’m in the movie but as a star wars fan I am very excited! A year is a long time but it will be worth the wait.”

I've been corrected a few times now. Basically they are saying all the original clones have been replace by the time this new story takes place so there is no reason to think that a stormtrooper can't be black.

If you think the response to this is bad, check out the board for the recent indie satire DEAR WHITE PEOPLE----the IMDB board for it is crammed crowded with comments from racist trolls screaming about how the racist the film is merely because of the title, and filling the board with all other kinds of racist BS. Check this out:

"Geneticists have determined that early Europeans were likely "black" with blue eyes. Okay. So what? How does that translate into meaningful or substantive political, social, or economic power? You/I likely knew that in middle school. And?"

It matters because it's a good reminder that white people did not help to create this world by themselves, and that they weren't the only people to contribute to history. And not everybody had the privilege learning this in middle school,either---that depends on where you went to school, and on the amount of black history you were taught.

The issue with white folks and Egypt is this. Anytime there is something that some white folks, a disproportionate number of whites can't understand they immediately need to convince themselves and the rest of the world that that thing was done by white folks.

There line of thought being, "hell, how could blacks build the pyramids and we the great white folks not understand how it was done" so it was either done by white folks or aliens is their logic.

Same thing was said about the walls of Great Zimbabwe, in the late 1800s archiologists were pressured by the white government in Rhodesia to deny that black Africans built these amazing walls, suggesting that it was early Europeans who were its builders.

Egypt , Great Zimbabwe and various other great achievements by Africa peoples destroys the white supremacist self esteem Matrix like construct that too many white folks believe in. Its 2014, enough of this shit!!!

After I realized that "Blade Runner" was nothing more than a futuristic run away slave narrative with Deckard as the slave catcher and his his boss Bryant in the role of the racist cop I lost interest and respect for the film and Ridley Scott. In the original version of the film Deckard refers to his boss as "the kind of cop that used to call black men niggers" I believe this line was removed from later versions of the film if I'm not mistaken.

Of course there is not a black face to be seen in Blade Runner but thats pretty much par for the course of all sci fi movies, especially of that era. If there had been a black character I'm sure he would have played the Gaff character and killed off in the first 30mins of the movie.

That could certainly be the case--but the problem is that they may be the minority, but they keep screaming the loudest (as well as the fact that they seem to have all the time in the world to keep posting garbage in message forums).

I do not believe that nerd or geek culture is racist--but let's face it, there are racists (or racially ignorant) jerks in there who are also misogynists--in other words, close-minded.

Thanks for this....I was amazed that I was able to tolerate reading so much of the racist BS posted in that forum without throwing up.

The sad thing is this--it's 2014. It's the second decade of the twenty-first century. You would think that after all the sacrifices and efforts...but for some, they still think it's 1914, or they think that there's an evil plot to "blackify" everything.

In regards to SW, I also noticed a few comments attacking J.J. Abrams on the basis of his Jewish background. So yeah, these fools are not only racist, but anti semites as well.

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Who is Chauncey DeVega?

I have been a guest on the BBC, National Public Radio, Ring of Fire Radio, Ed Schultz, Sirius XM's Make it Plain, Joshua Holland's Alternet Radio Hour, the Thom Hartmann radio show, the Burt Cohen show, and Our Common Ground.

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I am a contributing writer for Salon and Alternet.

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